Analog Stick - History

History

The first consumer games console which had analog joysticks was the Prinztronic/Acetronic/Interton series, launched in 1976. This system was widely cloned throughout Europe and available under several brand names. The 2 sticks each used a pair of potentiometers, but were not self-centering.

In 1982, Atari released their first controller with a potentiometer-based analog joystick for their Atari 5200 home console. However, its non-centering joystick design proved to be ungainly and unreliable, alienating many consumers at the time. During that same year, General Consumer Electronics introduced the Vectrex, a vector graphics based system which used a self-centering analog stick, a precursor to the modern design. For many years, consoles ignored analog technology, instead using the digital d-pad. It was not until the emergence of 3D graphics, and the gameplay mechanics that came along with it, that the analog stick was brought back for widespread use.

In 1985, Sega's third-person rail shooter game Space Harrier, released for the arcades, introduced a true analog flight stick for movement. It could register movement in any direction as well as measure the degree of push, which could move the player character at different speeds depending on how far the joystick is pushed in a certain direction.

On April 26, 1996, Sony released a potentiometer-based analog joystick for use in Flight-Simulation games. The Sony Dual Analog FlightStick featured twin analog sticks and was used in games such as Descent to provide a much greater degree of freedom than the typical digital joysticks of the day.

Initially announced for release on April 21, 1996, Nintendo released their Nintendo 64 controller on June 24, 1996. The new controller included a thumb-operated control stick which, while a digital stick (the stick operated on the same principles as a mechanical computer mouse), still allowed for varying levels of movement and near-360-degree control, translating into far more precise movements than were possible with a D-pad.

On July 5, 1996, Sega released Nights into Dreams... for their Saturn console in Japan; bundled with it was the Saturn 3D control pad which featured an analog pad intended to give the player more fluid control over that game's flight-based gameplay. The analog pad was less complex in construction in comparison with its contemporaries due to the implementation of Hall effect sensors, serving as a basis for the Dreamcast controller.

On April 25, 1997, Sony released a similar analog stick, based on the same potentiometer technology that was used in the larger Dual Analog Flightstick. The Sony Dual Analog controller featured rumble, three modes of analog (Flightstick, Full Analog and Analog-Off), and dual plastic concave thumbsticks, while Nintendo and Sega's controllers only had a single stick.

On November 20, 1997, Sony released their third analog controller to the market: the DualShock. The controller featured similar twin analog sticks to the Dual Analog, although they featured convex rubber tips rather than concave plastic ones. Sony also removed the third analog (flightstick) mode and added two new buttons, L3 and R3, under the thumbsticks, which could be used by pressing down on the sticks.

In 1999, Sony's Ape Escape became the first major video game to require the use of two analog sticks.

In the console generations that followed, many video game console controllers have included two analog sticks, with the exception of the Dreamcast and Nintendo's non-classic Wii controllers. Other exceptions to this dual-stick rule are Sony's PlayStation Portable and Nintendo's 3DS handheld game consoles (although the latter may be upgraded to dual-stick functionality through the use of an accessory), which both feature only a single small, flat sliding analog "nub". However, Sony's PlayStation Vita does have a dual analog stick configuration.